{"id":52545,"date":"2022-09-20T10:35:28","date_gmt":"2022-09-20T17:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=52545"},"modified":"2022-09-20T10:35:28","modified_gmt":"2022-09-20T17:35:28","slug":"secretary-blinken-at-the-launch-of-the-alliance-for-afghan-womens-economic-resilience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=52545","title":{"rendered":"Secretary Blinken At the Launch of the Alliance for Afghan Women\u2019s Economic Resilience"},"content":{"rendered":"
09\/20\/2022 12:22 PM EDT<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State<\/p>\n

New York, New York<\/p>\n

Palace Hotel<\/p>\n

SECRETARY BLINKEN:<\/strong>\u00a0 Well, good morning, everyone.\u00a0 And Kat, thank you so much for not only your good words today \u2013 actually, your incredibly powerful words today, which I strongly endorse; in fact, I\u2019m tempted to just drop the microphone and say \u201cwhat she said\u201d \u2013 (laughter) \u2013 but for your leadership every day around the world, as well as in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

And I also just want to recognize a few really exceptional colleagues who are joining us today, starting with Don Lu, our Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs.\u00a0 Next to him, Tom West, our Special Representative for Afghanistan, and someone I think known to many of you, Rina Amiri, our Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls, and Human Rights.<\/p>\n

The three of them together, along with Kat, and along with so many other colleagues, are making sure every single day that Afghanistan writ large and women and girls in particular remain at the heart of our focus and our determination.\u00a0 And I really want to thank Rina in particular for incredibly dedicated advocacy for the people of Afghanistan.\u00a0 We\u2019re really lucky to have you on our team.\u00a0 You are working tirelessly to stand up for Afghan women and girls, their rights, and all at-risk Afghans.\u00a0 Thank you, Rina.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m really grateful to our partners from civil society and the private sector, including our very exceptional panelists.\u00a0 I had a chance to speak to them briefly a few minutes ago.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re all here for a particular purpose today, and that is to launch a new initiative:\u00a0 The Alliance for Afghan Women\u2019s Economic Resilience.\u00a0 More to say about that in just a few minutes.<\/p>\n

But Your Highness, I\u2019m also grateful to you for taking part today, for leading this discussion.\u00a0 Thank you for your engagement not just today, but again, every day.\u00a0 It\u2019s greatly appreciated.<\/p>\n

So as you heard Kat describe, we are meeting at a deeply challenging time for Afghan women and girls.\u00a0 That is no secret to anyone in this room.\u00a0 Since taking power, the Taliban have severely restricted women\u2019s rights in Afghanistan, turning back two decades of progress that Afghan women themselves built with the support of the international community.<\/p>\n

The Taliban have denied women freedom of movement.\u00a0 They\u2019ve banned girls from secondary school classrooms.\u00a0 They\u2019ve prohibited women in the workplace, women who last year \u2013 again, as Kat said \u2013 were managing businesses, running schools, serving in government.\u00a0 Many women have had to flee for safety; they face extraordinary challenges in rebuilding their lives in new countries.<\/p>\n

Women, no matter where they live, should have equal rights in every facet of their lives.\u00a0 Equal opportunities to study, to work; equal access to financial resources; and they should enjoy the same freedoms as everyone else to travel, to express themselves, to choose their own paths.<\/p>\n

This should be, in the year 2022, self-evident to everyone on this planet.\u00a0 But of course, it\u2019s not, and we have to fight for it.\u00a0 We have to struggle for it every single day.<\/p>\n

But particularly here this week at the United Nations, where the world comes together at High-Level Week, these rights were enshrined in the preamble of the United Nations Charter.\u00a0 This is the founding document of international relations.\u00a0 It\u2019s the founding document that describes not Western-created rights, not something invented here or in any particular country, but universal rights to which everyone is subscribing, or is at least supposed to subscribe.\u00a0 The charter affirms the faith of all peoples of the United Nations, \u201cin fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women.\u201d\u00a0 And that is a direct quote from the charter.<\/p>\n

So no more better time than today, than this week, to reaffirm those rights, to reaffirm a common understanding and a common commitment to those rights, and no more important a place to do it than with regard to Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also, I think, incredibly important to understand that the repression of these rights in Afghanistan is not only setting back women, but all Afghans, the country as a whole, including Afghanistan\u2019s economy.\u00a0 So it\u2019s simply not in the basic self-interest of anyone in Afghanistan, including the Taliban.\u00a0 When women are cut out of the workforce, society loses talent.\u00a0 It loses productivity from half of its population.<\/p>\n

Today, women could contribute $1 billion to Afghanistan\u2019s economy if they were simply allowed to.\u00a0 They could provide lifelines for families facing poverty; they could help create more stable, more resilient communities at a time when those are desperately needed in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

In short, equality and economic opportunity actually go hand in hand.\u00a0 And there are prerequisites for sustainable peace and sustainable security.\u00a0 So that\u2019s one reason the United States will continue supporting equality and opportunity for Afghan women and girls.<\/p>\n

So one way we\u2019re doing this is by providing direct assistance to at-risk Afghans.\u00a0 Just over the last year, we\u2019ve contributed more than $770 million to humanitarian organizations.\u00a0 In addition, USAID recently announced another $30 million in development assistance for Afghan women and girls.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve also partnered with Switzerland and Afghan economic experts to launch the Afghan Fund, something you\u2019ve seen and probably read about in recent days.\u00a0 This is going to help protect and make targeted disbursements of $3.5 billion in Afghan Central Bank reserves to support the country\u2019s economic stability.<\/p>\n

For all that we\u2019re doing with the humanitarian assistance, as desperately needed as that is \u2013 it\u2019s necessary, but it\u2019s not enough.\u00a0 And helping to create basic economic stability is actually vital to making sure that Afghans do not suffer even more in the very difficult circumstances that they\u2019re living.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re also supporting Afghan women and girls through our diplomacy.\u00a0 We\u2019re organizing with our allies and partners, including in the Muslim world, to present a united front and urge the Taliban to respect women\u2019s rights.\u00a0 And we\u2019re amplifying Afghan women\u2019s voices in international institutions \u2013 including here at the United Nations.<\/p>\n

Today, in partnership with Boston University, we are announcing our newest initiative: the Alliance for Afghan Women\u2019s Economic Resilience.\u00a0 Let me just say a few words about that before turning it over to our panel.<\/p>\n

This is a public-private partnership that will help improve access to education and training, expand job opportunity, support women entrepreneurs in Afghanistan as well as in other countries.\u00a0 Now, I don\u2019t want to sugarcoat it:\u00a0 This is going to be hard, given the severe restraints imposed by the Taliban, but we are determined to safely deliver this support to women in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

The alliance builds on proven models, something we\u2019ve had experience with in other places, and it reflects the resources, the innovation, the speed and expertise that we can harness when we bring together private enterprise, academic institutions, NGOs, and governments.<\/p>\n

So for example, in partnership with Pod \u2013 this is an American technology company \u2013 the alliance will launch the Million Women Mentors Initiative for Afghan Women and Girls.\u00a0 Mentors from Deloitte will help Pod offer remote career guidance to the first 2,000 of these million Afghan women.\u00a0 I have seen this work in other places, and it is remarkable what you can achieve even doing things at a distance.\u00a0 So we\u2019re going to get off to a start with this.<\/p>\n

Boston University\u2019s Pardee School of Global Studies will host the alliance.\u00a0 It will provide staffing, research, technical assistance, and programmatic support to help the alliance run and help it thrive.<\/p>\n

Boston University, Deloitte, Pod, thank you for being part of this crucial effort.<\/p>\n

To others who see a way to contribute to this alliance, whether it\u2019s from the public sector, the private sector, two words: Join us.\u00a0 We\u2019re eager to work with you on behalf of Afghan women.<\/p>\n

So there\u2019s a lot more that could be said.\u00a0 I really want to leave it now to some remarkable people who offer their experience, their expertise, and an opportunity to share it with you.\u00a0 But let me simply conclude by saying thank you to everyone in this room who remains invested in the future of Afghanistan and the future of its women and girls.\u00a0 The United States remains invested, and we will continue to work this every single day.<\/p>\n

Thank you so much.\u00a0 (Applause.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

09\/20\/2022 12:22 PM EDT   Antony...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s-a","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52546,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52545\/revisions\/52546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}